Originally published in the Sept. 12, 2024 edition of Broadcast Dialogue’s Weekly Briefing
Ward Smith, is among those taking on expanded roles at Corus Entertainment. Smith is now overseeing both the News and Audio portfolios, with his title Senior Vice-President, Global News and Corus Audio. Smith was previously SVP of Global News, overseeing news operations across the Corus network, including 15 local TV news stations, national news programs, and news programming across the Corus Radio talk network. Jackie Moss is now VP, Marketing, leading marketing efforts across all of Corus, covering all platforms including programming, streaming, audio, and news. Moss had held the title of VP of Audio since January, overseeing Corus’ 39 FM and AM radio stations as well as the Curiouscast Podcast Network. Prior to that, she served as National Director of Marketing and Promotions. Tammy Cole has moved from National Director, FM Programming – a role she assumed in February – to VP, FM Audio, overseeing Corus’ 28 FM stations. Read more here.
Alison Broddle is moving into a new role at CBC/Radio-Canada as Senior Managing Director for B.C. Broddle, who has been with the public broadcaster since 1992, has most recently held the title of Senior Director, Current Affairs and Investigative, and prior to that Director of Programming, CBC Network Radio. Broddle succeeds Johnny Michel, who left CBC this summer after 17 years as Managing Director, CBC English Services for B.C. and Alberta.
Gill Deacon is leaving CBC Radio One afternoon show, Here and Now, after a decade. Deacon, who has been battling long COVID over the last 20 months, previously took a leave from Here and Now in 2018-19 to undergo a second round of breast cancer treatment.
Carly and Jay (Carly Meyer and Jay Brody) have been dropped from afternoon drive on Rogers Sports & Media’s JACK FM (CJAX-FM) Vancouver. The duo were previously part of the SONiC (CKKS-FM) Vancouver lineup, before being moved into the 4 – 8 p.m. PT time slot on JACK FM in April. Jason Manning’s early afternoon shift has been expanded to 2 – 6 p.m.
Melanie Martin has returned to the morning show on Z103.5 (CIDC-FM) Toronto, as one half of the Z103.5 Morning Rush with Jimmy T & Melanie. In addition to Z103.5, Martin has previously hosted mornings on Flow 93.5 (CFXJ-FM) Toronto and BIG 101.1 (CIQB-FM) Barrie. She was named RCS’ Voice Tracker of the Year in 2019.
Christine Simpson has announced she’s leaving Sportsnet. Simpson, 59, is a day one employee, signing on with the network at its inception in 1998. Other than a three-year detour, she’s worked with Sportsnet continuously as a hockey features reporter and host of Showtime with Chris Simpson, among other roles. She’s also hosted and reported for ABC, ESPN, NBCSN, and the NHL Network.
Kyle Bukauskas is the new co-host of Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts podcast. Bukauskas hosts alongside Elliotte Friedman, replacing Jeff Marek, who parted ways with the network earlier in the summer. Bukauskas, 31, has been reporting for Sportsnet, based out of Ottawa, since 2011.
Corwin McCallum has announced his departure from TSN’s BarDown. McCallum, 34, who had been a Senior Content Producer & Strategist with TSN since 2016, will be moving into content creation for a major hockey equipment brand.
Luke Rodriguez has been promoted to Assistant Program Director for Bell Media London & Kitchener, where he’s also taken on afternoon announcer duties at 97.5 Virgin Radio (CIQM-FM) London. Rodriguez, the 2024 Allan Waters Young Broadcaster of the Year, has been APD and afternoon host on 104.9 Virgin Radio (CFMG-FM) Edmonton for the past two and a half years, and for the past four months was sitting in on The Marilyn Denis Show on Toronto’s CHUM 104.5.
Andrew Walker is joining Stingray’s Sports 1440 (CKJR-AM) Edmonton, as the host of the station’s Edmonton Oilers pre- and post-game shows. Walker was formerly with Sportsnet 650 (CISL-AM) Vancouver, where he was caught up in layoffs in 2021. He more recently has been hosting his own podcast, The Hedge.
Jackie Perez has moved into a new role at CTV Ottawa as the Community and Weather Anchor for the 5, 6, and 11:30 p.m. newscasts. Perez has been a reporter with the station since 2021.
Patti Sonntag is among those announcing she’s been caught up in recent cuts at Global News. Sonntag had been a National Online Correspondent with the Investigative Unit for the past 11 months. Prior to that, she was the Founding Director of the Institute for Investigative Journalism and an Editor with the New York Times for 15 years.
Tom Roulston has moved into the role of Western Regional Managing Director of Digital at Global News. Roulston, who has been with Global Lethbridge since 2017, had been filling in for the last year as Manager of News and Content for Global Winnipeg and 680 CJOB.
Zack Power has joined VOCM News in St. John’s, NL. Power has been a reporter with Global News, based in Saint John, NB for the past two years.
Deborah Gurofsky has been promoted to the role of SVP & Managing Director at Media Pulse, as Blue Ant Media continues to expand its connected TV (CTV) marketplace. Gurofsky has been with the company since 2020, previously holding the title of VP, Partnerships. The company has also made two senior leadership hires, Taylor Farmer, Director, Programmatic Revenue & Operations and Account Director Asha Chohan, who was previously an account executive with Corus Entertainment for 14 years. Read more here.
Elspeth Arbow, has been named Executive Assistant and Operations Manager, at the Disability Screen Office (DSO), while Kassia Neves is the organization’s new Communications Manager. Arbow joins the DSO after spending five years on the Youth & Education team at Hot Docs, where she helped oversee the Docs For Schools program, and served as the Disability Consultant on the past three editions of the festival. Based in Ottawa, Neves has experience promoting human rights in Brazil and UNESCO’s Biosphere Regions in Canada.
Kevin Gemmel, General Manager of Pattison Media, Prince George, is the new President of the B.C. Association of Broadcasters (BCAB). Simone Grewal, Program Director, Stingray’s 104.3 The Breeze (CHLG-FM) Vancouver, has been named Vice-President; Kathryn Stewart, Director of Talk and Talent, CKNW Vancouver, has been elected Treasurer; while Rob Brimacombe assumes the role of Past President. Pooja Sekhon, Program Director, RED FM (CKYE-FM) Surrey, has also joined the Board of Directors.
Prabu Chelladurai has been promoted at Quickplay to Managing Director, EMEA – Platform Solutions & Delivery, and hired streaming technology veteran Sean Lynch as Director of Business Development, and digital innovator Adam Mitchell as Global Head of Customer Success & Analytics. Chelladurai will assume strategic leadership of Quickplay’s teams. Lynch, formerly VP of Global Accounts at HBO, played a key role in launching a cloud evaluation program with Amazon and oversaw STB app expansion across LATAM and Europe for HBO’s You.i TV platform. Mitchell joins Quickplay from McKinsey & Co., where he was an associate partner advising senior media and technology execs on customer success and AI/digital transformations.
